One of the unusual things about war is that the soldiers who fight them could be friends with their enemy, under different circumstances. Union and Confederate soldiers who faced off against each other at the bloody battle of Gettysburg could have been fishing buddies under different circumstances.American and German soldiers who shot at each other across the morbid wastelands of eastern France could have been hunting buddies under different circumstances.Americans who struggled to take out a German pill boxes atop the cliffs at Omaha Beach on D-Day could have been camping buddies with the Wehrmacht soldiers under different circumstancesIt is therefore not surprising that long after war’s end, after stinging memories of the savage struggle between life and death have somewhat faded, we see heartfelt expressions of friendship, glimpses of what might have been under different circumstances.

Left: Dead on the field at Gettysburg.Right: Confederate and Union soldier embrace as friends in 1938 at the 75th anniversary of Gettysburg.

Left:WWI soliders remove dead comrade from Flander's Field in 1915.Right: American serviceman smiles as he comforts young, frightened German soldier near the end of the War.

Left: Attack at Pearl Harbor.Right: Japanese Dive bomber Zenji Abe and friend US Serviceman Richard Fiske unite for Pearl Harbor service. (Zenji was repentant of his country's surprise attack on the US).

In WWII captain Charlie Brown was flying his cripled B-17 flying fortress across occupied Europe and back to Britain when a German fighter pilot was dispatched to finish him off. When German fighter pilot Franz Stigler, a decorated pilot with over 25 confirmed kills, neared the heavily damaged B-17 and saw dead and wounded US airmen throughout the plane, he would not engage. Rather than shoot down the plane as ordered, he waved Capt. Brown on the correct course toward Britain and escorted him safely across hostile territory. Franz (left) and Charlie (right) became good friends 40 years after the war had ended.Franz reported back to his unit that the B-17 went down over the Channel rather than face court-martial which may have ended in the loss of his life. If he had shot down Charlie's B-17 that day (his third), he would have earned the Knight's Cross Medal.

I think the prophet Joseph Smith said it best when he wrote to a former enemy of the church, “Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, for friends at first are friends again at last.”

In one respect the American Civil War was unusual in that many of the officers in both the Federal and Confederate armies were classmates at West Point and often served at the same posts in the pre-war Army, fought against each other during the war, and then resumed friendships after.